Johannesburg - There is large-scale inappropriate political interference in the police, which leads to a poor selection of leaders, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said on Tuesday.

Head of the governance, crime and justice division at the ISS, Gareth Newham, told News24 that leaders in the police were being appointed despite their inability to do the job.

Newham said President Jacob Zuma should only appoint a national commissioner after there has been a competitive merit-based and transparent recruitment process, to ensure that only the best were elected to do the job.

He said until that happened, and until people were "being appointed because of their political loyalties", the police would not be able to function effectively.

Mbalula admitted that the "chop and change" of police commissioners - from Bheki Cele who was dismissed over a maladministration scandal to Riah Phiyega, who was found to be unfit to hold office - had affected the focus and direction of the police.

"There are 40 000 more cases of armed attacks in the country. It means on a day, on average, there are 110 more armed attacks than it was in South Africa five years ago," he said.

Newham said crime statistics for categories such as the overall violent crime rate, sexual assaults, and sexual offences were all "highly unreliable" - because most of these crimes were not reported to the police.

"The fact that those numbers are going down is not a measure of violent crime going down, it is a measure of a greater number of victims not having faith in the police. Every year, fewer and fewer people report sexual offences and assault to the police."

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